it's not a conspiracy. Unfortunately, this is the world today. We had wealth, and our standard of living improved because we did not have to waste money on stupid wars and we could invest it in our economies instead. This will probably change soon. We were lucky to grow up in relatively peaceful times because we enjoyed what they call "peace dividends". What changed is that now it's not just about mismanaging the economy, those idiots in power are pushing us to wars that we don't need.